AKEEM NAFIU writes that lawyers have expressed outrage at a recent report by a global organisation, SBM Intelligence, which revealed that a staggering sum of N2.57 billion was paid as ransom by 4,722 people kidnapped across Nigeria between July 2024 and June 2025

“The report by the global organisation, SBM Intelligence, that no fewer than 4,722 people were kidnapped across Nigeria between July 2024 and June 2025, may well be wanting in accuracy for lack of full reportage or coverage of actual instances of kidnapping across the country.

“I say so because of how long that period is and how common place, routine or ordinary, news of kidnapping incidences have become to Nigerians”, one of them said.

Another one said: “Several times, whenever a report as this comes to my notice, the question I often ask, is, what are the indices used in measuring the efficiency of security personnel in the country?

“If we are talking of almost 5,000 kidnap cases, with over N2 billion paid as ransom, then, it is obvious that the impunity displayed by the perpetrators, had no structure of resistance against it”.

The above quotes were part of the critical views expressed by some senior lawyers while responding to a damning report by a global organisation, SBM Intelligence, which posited that a whopping N2.57 billion was paid as ransom by no fewer than 4,722 people kidnapped across Nigeria within a year.

The lawyers linked the rising wave of kidnapping in the country to the failure of government at all levels to treat the menace as an existential threat to state legitimacy and the safety of citizens. The SBM Intelligence report indicated that no fewer than 4,722 people were kidnapped across Nigeria between July 2024 and June 2025, with N2.57 billion paid in ransoms against demands totalling N48 billion.

The report titled, “the Economics of Nigeria’s Kidnap Industry, A 2025 Update”, documented a crisis that has become entrenched as both a national security threat and an illicit economic sector. The reports reads in part, “during the year under review, 997 incidents of kidnapping were recorded nationwide, leading to 762 deaths.

Civilians made up the majority of the fatalities, with 563 killed, while 180 kidnappers and 19 security agents also lost their lives”. The report however underlines the human toll of the crisis, noting that ransom payments are no guarantee of survival, “at least 32 victims were killed in captivity despite payments being made by their families.

In some cases, ransom bearers themselves were abducted or killed after delivering money” SBM Intelligence also recorded 231 incidents involving more than five victims each, representing 23 per cent of all cases. Zamfara alone accounted for 50 such incidents, during which 1,064 people were abducted. It further revealed that the Northwest remains the centre of the problem.

Zamfara State had the highest number of kidnap victims, 1,203 in total, while Katsina reported the largest number of incidents, 131. “Kaduna recorded 629 victims. Together, these three states alone accounted for nearly half of all abductions nationwide. “Sokoto and Niger also ranked among the top five.

Kidnapping in Nigeria has mutated into an economy of violence

By contrast, southern states such as Lagos and Osun reported very low figures, nine and one victim respectively, though targeted abductions still occurred in parts of Delta, Rivers and Anambra states.

“Religious figures continued to be targeted, particularly in the Catholic Church. At least 17 priests were abducted, mostly in Borno and Kaduna states, with average ransom demands of N85 million. “In one high-profile case, Rev. Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu was killed in Kaduna despite his abductors collecting ransom.

Other clergy, including nuns and catechists, were also kidnapped”, the report added. The report further suggested that while ransom payments may sometimes reduce the risk of clergy being killed, the practice has expanded to include a wider circle of religious stakeholders.

Litigations over kidnapping

The Nigerian justice system has in recent years been confronted with an unrelenting wave of kidnappingfor-ransom cases, a criminal enterprise that has grown into a parallel economy.

Figures released by a coalition of civic organisations revealed that between July 2024 and June 2025 alone, 4,722 persons were abducted in 997 separate incidents, with victims’ families and communities parting with an estimated N2.57 billion to secure the release of their loved ones. In spite of the staggering statistics, the pace of judicial proceedings has lagged far behind the severity of the crisis.

In Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Kaduna, cases of kidnap-for-ransom litter the dockets of Federal and State High Courts. Some have dragged on for years, underscoring systemic weaknesses in criminal justice administration. One case frequently cited in legal circles is that of Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, alias “Evans”, the so-called “billionaire kidnapper,” whose arrest in 2017 sent shockwaves across the country.

His trial, which spanned several years, epitomised the sluggish nature of the judiciary’s handling of high-profile kidnapping prosecutions. It was only in 2022 that Evans was finally convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a Lagos High Court.

Yet, even after that celebrated ruling, other charges against him remained pending before different courts, emblematic of a judicial system struggling to deliver swift justice.

Similarly, in July 2025, the Federal High Court in Makurdi began proceedings against nine terrorism suspects arraigned in connection with coordinated abductions and killings in Benue State. The case, monitored by human rights observers, underscored how kidnappers increasingly operate as organised syndicates, blurring the line between common criminality and terrorism.

Prosecutors charged the suspects under the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, citing links with armed militias responsible for cross-border kidnappings. In a dramatic twist, one of the defendants pleaded guilty, while eight others entered not guilty pleas, setting the stage for a protracted trial.

Ransom payment criminalisation

New Telegraph Law recalls that in 2022, the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act introduced a contentious provision: criminalising the payment of ransom to kidnappers, with a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment. The rationale was straightforward—starve kidnappers of financial incentives.

Yet the implementation raises troubling dilemmas. For families negotiating for their loved ones, payment is often the only perceived lifeline.

To threaten grieving parents or spouses with imprisonment seems to criminalise desperation. Critics however argued that the provision, while well-intentioned, clashes with the fundamental rights to life and family preservation.

As long as security agencies cannot guarantee swift rescue operations, outlawing ransom payments risks punishing victims rather than deterring offenders.

State-level anti-kidnapping laws

Several states have gone further, prescribing harsher penalties. States such as Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Oyo, Lagos, Cross River and Imo States provide for death penalty in aggravated kidnapping cases, especially where victims die.

Others impose life imprisonment for attempted kidnapping or conspiracy. In some jurisdictions, even the mere possession of firearms or facilitation of ransom negotiations attracts severe penalties.

Despite these laws, enforcement has been patchy. Arrests often fail to lead to convictions. Where convictions are secured, appeals drag for years. In states where the death penalty is prescribed, executions are rarely carried out, creating a symbolic law with limited deterrent effect.

Lawyers speak

In his comments, a constitutional lawyer and rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), said government at all levels must exhibit political will to frontally deal with the menace.

The silk said: “The issue of ravaging insecurity across Nigeria is no longer news. Nigeria has since become a crime scene of daily gruesome murders by kidnappers and terrosist bandits. These are detestable elements wilfully imported into the country during the Muhammadu Buhari’s government to swell up the number of voters.

“Nigeria has therefore become a failing state where non-state actors have overwhelmed a legitimately constituted government with equal or superior firepower leading to the country being literally held hostage.

“Payment of ransom has since become the norm with billions of naira extorted from helpless and hapless Nigerians. It is horrifying seeing kidnappers brazenly posting their victims on the social media and threatening mayhem and death; yet the government looks the other way.

“Many people, including some past government players, have since flown the theory that this is big business with complicity by some government functionaries. The government should therefore look inwards to fish out these bad eggs that thrive on people’s sorrow, anguish, blood, pains and pangs”. Speaking in the same vein, a rights activist, Malachy Ugwummadu, described the report as a sad commentary about situation of things in Nigeria. “It is a very sad commentary and a low moment for Nigeria as a country.

With this as part of our history in very recent period, Nigeria is gradually beginning to feel the taste of an instable country. The level of insecurity, the ease in which crime and criminality are perpetrated, the living standard, the purchasing power of Nigerians, as well as the general life expectancy of citizens were all indices that are considered before a country is categorized as a failed or failing nation.

“We could see that from the figures alone, these are very disturbing revelations and unfortunately research data relating to the state of our insecurity. By Section 14 (2b), the Constitution is explicit in dictating that the primary purpose of government is for the welfare and security of citizens.

In order words, where a government is unable to protect the lives and property of its citizens, such government has no business to be in power. “The problem is gradually looking intractable because it has been persisting for over two decades. At some point, it seems we are getting it right, while at some other time, it’s like the heavens were getting loosed. “The prognosis so far is that of ensuring that the issue of security is not politicized.

For security to be guaranteed in Nigeria, the right things, the right people and the appropriate know-how, either in terms of human resources or equipments, logistics, intelligence, as well as training and retraining must be deployed effectively to get these behind us”, Ugwummadu said. In his views, a Lagos-based lawyer, Destiny Takon, called for an overhaul of the hierarchy and existing personnel of security agencies so as to purge them of bad eggs and collaborators with criminal elements.

Takon said: “The report by the global organisation, SBM Intelligence, that no fewer than 4,722 people were kidnapped across Nigeria between July 2024 and June 2025, may well be wanting in accuracy for lack of full reportage or coverage of actual instances of kidnapping across the country. “I say so because of how long that period is and how common place, routine or ordinary, news of kidnapping incidences have become to Nigerians.

So many actual instances are not reported by Nigerians in areas occupied by the very armed criminals or in far flong or rural areas, either because of the apathy of the government or the inaccessibility of the areas to news gatherers or due to sheer resignation to despair.

“Owing to sheer absence of governance, incompetence or the lack of willing to do the right thing, too many Nigerians and foreign intruders, have found a ‘cash cow’ in the business of kidnapping and they operate with near impunity, especially in the Northern parts of the country. “God is the only true security that anyone who is not guarded by armed security personnel in Nigeria has, on a day to day basis.

The way forward, for me, is for the government to wake up from its dereliction of a primary responsibility to preserve life, limb and property and to maintain law and order. “A proper head count today, will evince that we have one security personnel, to two thousand members of our population (if not more).

The prolonged crisis of kidnapping in Nigeria is scaring away foreign investors

How can that be adequate, even if they were all properly assigned to provide security for Nigerians other than public office holders? “An overhaul of the hierarchy and existing personnel of the security agencies is also imperative, with a view to purge the security agencies or bad eggs and collaborators with these criminal elements”.

In his submissions, a senior lawyer, Ige Asemudara, noted that the prolonged crisis of kidnapping in the country is scaring away foreign investors.

He said: “It is a very dangerous trend, badly so. It is shattering Nigeria to its foundation. Foreign investors and expatriates are scared to come in, stay or even operate. “The leadership of our nation should be serious and sincere with the fight. The government must get hold of our security agencies.

It is a war and we must not take it lightly. They must be rooted out. “It is important that traditional and community leadership be incorporated into the security system. They know their people. Every local knows who is operating around him. We should all stand up to root it out”. A public interest lawyer, Dr. Abdul Mahmud, said the figures presented in the report indicated that kidnapping in Nigeria has mutated into an economy of violence.

“I described it as an economy of loss in one of my op-eds in 2022 when my in-law was kidnapped in Edo State and the family had to cough out N75 million as ransom payment. “This economy of violence functions like a market, with abductions generating constant demands and ransom payments sustaining supply, reinforced by families’ desperation to secure the survival of their loved ones.

“There is a reason for this: the absence of effective securitisation in the sense advanced by Barry Buzan, Ole Waever, and Jaap de Wilde. Securitisation simply means the process through which issues are framed and elevated into existential threats, thereby compelling extraordinary state response.

“In our country today, kidnapping has not been adequately securitised; it remains treated as routine criminality, rather than an existential threat to state legitimacy and the safety of citizens. “The consequences of this failure are profound. As securitisation theory reminds us, what is not named, framed, and acted upon as a threat to survival remains underaddressed.

By failing to securitise kidnapping, the state cheapens life and abdicates its central role as guarantor of security. “Citizens are left to negotiate with violent actors in a shadow economy where ransom payments embolden criminal groups and expand cycles of abduction.

Without securitisation, and without recognising and confronting kidnapping as a fundamental security threat, the spiral of violence will continue, further eroding public trust and deepening our governance crisis”, Mahmud said. In his comments, a senior lawyer, Abiodun Olugbemide, asked that effective structures to counter kidnappers’ strategies must be put in place by government.

He said: “Several times, whenever a report as this comes to my notice, the question I often ask, is, what are the indices used in measuring the efficiency of security personnel in the country? “If we are talking of almost 5,000 kidnap cases, with over N2 billion paid as ransom, then, it is obvious that the impunity displayed by the perpetrators, had no structure of resistance against it.

“We are not talking about the space of five or ten years, but one! It is because of this lack of security efficiency, that majority of the victims never reported the case to the police. “The reason for not reporting crime includes the lack of confidence in law enforcement agencies, and the belief that police intervention would not result in meaningful action.

“Thus, it becomes a vicious cycle in which the perpetrators of the evil, go ahead constantly, knowing full well that the victims will not report to the security agencies, the victims making efforts to pay, just to secure the release of their loved ones, and after the payment, the cycle begins again”. A senior lawyer, Onesimus Ruya, said the abduction crisis is not only a security issue, but a constitutional emergency.

“The figures are a national disgrace. Every Nigerian is at risk because kidnappers have realised the state cannot guarantee security. Yet, I find it troubling that the government criminalises ransom payments under the Terrorism Act. You cannot punish desperate families who sell their houses or businesses just to get their children back.

The state must first demonstrate its own capacity to rescue victims swiftly. Otherwise, the law becomes unjust, even if well-intentioned. “The Constitution is clear, the right to life and dignity of the human person is inviolable. The abduction crisis is not only a security issue but a constitutional emergency.

Victims’ rights are violated daily, and government inertia amounts to dereliction of its constitutional duty under Section 14. “Citizens should begin to test these failures in court through public interest litigation. If government cannot protect lives, it should be held accountable”, Ruya said.